1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of door closures, and more particularly to a novel manually releasable latch for holding a door in its closed position and which includes means for forcibly urging the door open when manually released.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the past, it has been the conventional practice to use any one of a variety of door closures in order to releasably hold a hinged door in its closed position. Some of these prior devices rely on magnets, spring clips and turning latches or the like. Problems and difficulties have been encountered with such conventional devices which stem largely from the fact that the latch closure is not positive and in the event of violent shaking, such as in an earthquake, the latch may open to release whereby the contents of a cabinet or the like may fall or separate from the cabinet. Although some conventional latches provide for automatic closure when the door is in its closed position, few, if any, latch mechanisms provide for automatic opening such as forcibly urging the door to an open position when the latch has been manually released. In other instances, plastic hooks have been employed which permit partial opening of the door with respect to the cabinet but which further requires manual dexterity to unlatch the hook from its closure member.
Therefore, a long-standing need has existed to provide a novel latching mechanism which permits automatic latching of a door to a cabinet in a closed position and which permits forcible opening of the door when the latch is manually released. The latch mechanism is to be positive such that shaking or other movement of the hinged door will not release the latch mechanism.